Parks Aren't the Answer This is a story about parkland, old houses and real estate developers who say one thing and do another. The moral of the story is that "preservation through parkification" offers no guarantee to protecting the past. If you live in the Brandywine Hundred, chances are that you have driven by a large area of woodland at the intersection of Marsh and Veale Roads. I'll bet that many of you go by it every day on your way to I-95 and have never noticed it. It’s the land right behind the Sage Diner (once owned by Pizza Hut). As long time resident of North Wilmington, it always struck me as odd that that much land could go undeveloped in such a dense corridor of suburbia. Being someone who enjoys solving riddles of the past, I started to research the history of the property. Not much surfaced initially other than an old map from 1868 showing the property belonging to a “J. Forwood". A later map from 1893 also showed "Jos. Forwood" as the owner. It was obvious from both maps that Mr. Forwood owned a great deal of land and farmed most of the 123 acres. Today, it has been replaced by 400 homes in Forwood, Northwood and Winterhaven!). Other than a few pages of a family tree in the Delaware Historical Society, there was little else in the public record about the Forwoods. I decided to explore the woods looking for evidence of the house and, indeed, there were some old stone foundations but they seemed to outline a barn, not a house. I also found stone walls running along what seemed to be a road, a 1950's style barbecue pit heavily overgrown by briars, and, surprisingly, a lush green bamboo grove. Unfortunately, my field trip only generated questions, not answers. It took about two years of trial and error before I uncovered the mystery of 1617 Marsh Road. Yes, it did have an address and it did have a house on it. Those of you who might remember when the Mellon Bank across the way was the Mayfield House Restaurant probably remember the house as "old Doc Allen's place". Others called it "Allenville" because there were a number of stone outbuildings on the property that included a large spring house, a carriage shed and barn. All were positioned around the main house, which was set back from the road and accessed by a private drive. But they're all gone now, torn down in 1974, believe it or not, by order of New Castle County! The oldest section of the house was built in 1797 by Jehu (pronounced jay-uh) and Mary Forwood on land owned by Jehu's father. It was a large fieldstone colonial that remained, and grew, with successive generations of the Forwood family until 1937. Although impressive in size and appearance, it was very much a traditional farmhouse with a simple and functional interior. No plaster crown molding or ceiling medallions in this home; just large exposed beams bearing the marks of the hand tools that finished them. In the oldest part of the house stood its most unique feature, a large fireplace and baking oven that protruded out the side of the house in a half dome shape. This "beehive" oven was believed to be the only one of its kind still in existence in the Brandywine Hundred. The mid 1930's marked the beginning of end of most family farms in North Wilmington. The Depression made it very difficult to sustain a good livelihood from them, and city jobs paid better. With the success of the stately Carrcroft development on Marsh Road, other landowners with good access to the Philadelphia Pike began to sell out to the growing demand for upscale
country housing. The Forwoods sold most of their farmland for a large, exclusive development in 1937. The house and seventeen acres around it were sold to a young doctor and his wife; John and Mildred Allen. The Allens restored portions of the house, cared for it, and kept it in good condition for the 30 years that they lived there. John was frequently seen on his tractor as a "gentleman farmer". In 1964, Allen announced that he was planning to retire his practice and move to a smaller home in Florida. Under normal circumstances, such plans would have drawn little attention were it not for the way in which they intended to sell their home. The postwar development that took place around the Allen’s property was nothing short of incredible, as developments like Graylyn Crest and Green Acres made a fifth of an acre the local standard for the American Dream. Even the plans for the rest of the Forwood development, which got stalled by World War 2, were replaced by the denser neighborhood known today as Northwood. It was obvious to the Allens that parceling the land into smaller lots would increase its value, but at the same time there was no good way to accomplish that without choking off access to the old house, or destroying the outbuildings. They cared a great deal about the property, and looked for a way to preserve it while maximizing their investment. Their compromise was to sell it to a Pennsylvania developer named Donald Gaster for $200,000. He planned to erect 300 medium rise, garden apartments around the house and the other buildings, and promised that he would preserve them as offices and utility areas. All that was necessary for the success of the venture was the rezoning of the property to allow multifamily dwellings. Needless to say, the local community was totally against the idea and was able to sway the Zoning Commission into recommending against the proposal. However, the commission left the door open by noting that the area was already heavily developed with two shopping centers nearby, and that some flexibility might be appropriate before a final decision was made. Two years later, the rezoning was approved in a closed-door meeting. Few people are aware today that the powerful Central Civic Association of the Brandywine Hundred was formed as a result of this dispute, and they challenged the decision immediately. They felt that the area would be better served by converting the land into a county park. Through their efforts, they won a state Supreme Court reversal of the rezoning in 1968. As it turns out, this victory would ring hollow due to the stubbornness of Gaster to see his plan through. For six more years, a tug of war went on between the developer and the County, who couldn't decide on whether to proceed with the park idea. In 1974, the county did agree to the park and tried to buy the land from Gaster. Two more years went by as the two sides seemingly argued over price. what was really going on seems more insidious than that, but I'll leave it for you to draw your own conclusions. The Allens moved from the house in 1967 and Gaster kept it vacant during the many disputes and court battles that went on. The house became a popular hangout for kids, who had no nearby park to play in. They rode their bikes through the property, set bonfires at night, and attracted undesirables who purportedly sold drugs there as well. Vandalism and fire damage took
their toll. Gaster filed suit in 1972 against certain minors who were charged by the police with some of the destruction. That suit experienced its own tug of war when the parents of the minors countersued Gaster for letting the property deteriorate. To make a long story short, the County solved the matter rather quickly by tearing down the house and buildings in the name of public safety. In 1976, they exercised "eminent domain" and condemned the land, as well, for development into a public park (the first time, I might add, that New Castle County ever did so!). Two more years of court battles went on before the Delaware Supreme Court upheld paying Gaster $30,000 per acre as fair compensation for his property. John Allen died in 1975, not knowing if he would ever get his final payment of $40,000 for the land he had sold nine years earlier. When all was said and done, I'm not sure I can tell the winners from the losers. The Allens must have been bitterly disappointed, or were they bitterly deceived? Gaster, although seemingly uncooperative, did have his property bulldozed over and taken away from him. And the County, although acting in the best interests of the public, ended up paying $496,000 for a piece of property that I'm not sure it ever wanted. I say that because, as you may have inferred by now, the County never approved funding to convert the land into a usable park! The reality of the situation is that New Castle County has many little islands of overgrown parkland that it simply can't afford to do anything with, let alone care for. And parks don't work very well as "museums" either where the maintenance of buildings is necessary, unless Federal funding or a sizeable private endowment exists to support it. Witness the County's Brandywine Springs Park, a very successful picnic area and softball complex. Did you know that on those same grounds once stood a nationally known mineral springs resort, and then a turn of the century amusement park reached by trolley from the city? The spring is still there, under two feet mud and debris, but it hasn't been cared for in over 25 years. The destruction of the house upsets me the most in this story. Ironically, it occurred at a time when most communities were preparing to celebrate the Bicentennial and were building awareness in local preservation. Some consolation can be taken in the fact that when the dispute started, the County didn't even have a historic preservation position. Today it has such a staff, and can act to at least stall developers from destroying old structures before they are properly studied and documented. But as Valerie Cesna, County Preservation Planner, points out, there's nothing in the County code to ultimately prevent demolition if the property isn't historically registered or zoned. So the next time you drive by the Sage Diner on Marsh Road, take a look at those woods just behind it. There are your tax dollars at work. Gene Castellano - March 1990
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